Season 50, Episode 7: War Or "Rules for thee and not for me"

It's funny how these blokes fancy themselves warriors. OK, one bloke. You know who. Honestly, I'm not sure what Coach's strategy is other than to have "honor and integrity" but how exactly does that play out? He didn't win any of his previous seasons. I mean, one could absolutely argue that he should have won South Pacific, but he didn't. And he's one of those players people say is a threat, but, truly, is he? He's too wrapped up in his own story to see what's happening around him half the time.

Coach is a character. We know this. His constant stream of quotes from important men (and perhaps only men?) of history, his (sort-of) haikus, his tai chi, his obsession with King Arthur. The fact that he goes by "Coach" and has been known to adorn his hair in beads and feathers. He's obviously a good guy. I mean, he's not malicious. He's obviously someone who cares about being good and about people. And I bet he's a great dad. Coach is also a liar.

"Coach is a flat faced liar most of the time." That's what Emily Flippen says (to us and to her fellow players), but we already know it's true. He's a liar like anyone else playing. He's lying about what he has to lie about to stay in the game as well as try to make happen whatever he feels will benefit him. But, as we all know, he's really good at lying to himself more than anything.

He lies to himself that he's not a liar. Dude, you lie. You lied on every season you played. It doesn't mean you aren't honorable. It doesn't mean you aren't a good person. It means you are playing the game of Survivor and you are trying to win a million dollars.

Yep, Coach is a liar. And I say that with love. I don't think Coach means to be a liar. I think he has somehow convinced himself that whatever he does is different from lying. At least the lying he sees his fellow players doing. I would love to have a sit down with him and and ask him what exactly he thinks the difference is between his game and, let's say, Dee's game. Since in this episode he's just so gosh darn distraught by Dee's gameplay.

Coach had told us earlier that we were seeing a new version of him. He was more social, he said, and less the dragon slayer. But now he tells us the old Coach is back. The man wants so desperately to be a hero. A noble knight whose kills are necessary. Like some of the dominant male players of the show (Boston Rob, Russell Hantz) he has a "you're either with me or against me" mentality. And he seems especially prone to feeling betrayed and frustrated by his female castaways. He even has to give Dee a lecture.

So now we see the dragon slayer unleashed on Season 50. If there ever was a "new Coach" he's dead (I'm sorry, new Coach can't come to the phone right now.) But you and I know, Coach is Coach. He can try to convince himself that he'll play differently, but he's too wrapped up in the myth of himself and the myth of the game he's created in his head. This idea that there's a correct way to play the game and it's his way. And somehow this way involves playing with honor. Again, what does that mean? Dee's game isn't honorable because she lied to Jonathan? If Dee had told Jonathan she was planning to vote for Charlie, then Jonathan would have likely told Charlie and Charlie would have done what he could do save himself, which could potentially put Dee in danger. And if Dee had stayed with the Charlie/Jonathan alliance and not voted Charlie and instead voted Rizo, then she wouldn't be playing her game the way she wanted to. Certainly we can argue about what would have been best for Dee and her future in the game, but that doesn't really matter here. What matters is the game Dee wanted to play and the path she saw for herself. Does she not have integrity because she took her own path?

"No one is going to win this game unless they have honor," says Coach, to fellow tribemembers. And I have to ask, yet again, what does that even mean, Coach? What does honor mean to him? Because I have to think that he sees his own strategy as honorable and the ones of other players as dishonorable. And what is his strategy? Well, he let Ozzy do all the work to fetch the key during their journey and then stole it from him. And we have to wonder if he told Colby to his face that he was voting him off. Is he walking up to Dee and telling her that he's planning for her to be gone? In fact, he's telling pretty much the whole tribe that she's the name? Perhaps he did tell Dee that she was his vote, but we don't see that. Is he telling Tiffany that the votes will be split between her and Dee? We don't see that either.

There are ways of playing that I think are hard to justify. The kind of lies one might tell (I don't care what anyone says, pretending you have a dead grandma is kind of funny in it's own way, but it's gross and manipulative and would probably kill your chances with the jury if they found out). I can't remember any examples of this, but I wouldn't support using anyone's insecurities against them to get farther. I wouldn't support bullying or downright cruelty. But telling someone you are with them and then not being with them? Well, I think that's just a necessary evil in the game.

(How would Coach handle playing Blood on the Clocktower? Mafia?)

"You wanna make war? I'll roll up my freakin' sleeves and wage war on all of these people."--Coach (after Jonathan tells him Kamilla went home because he couldn't trust her).

So, Coach and Jonathan seem riled up have decided there are now engaged in a war. Coach, the warrior, loves the idea of battle. Jonathan just wants to take out some enemies. Kamilla went home because Jonathan saw a better path for himself aligning with Chrissy and Stephenie vs. Dee. But Coach has framed it as a great betrayal. One worthy of enacting revenge for. I'm curious to know if Jonathan believes this or if he just knows how to play Coach to get him on his side.

We see some good and bad Jonathan game play this episode. He's clearly the driver of the vote against Dee, but Coach has taken it upon himself to be the boss and dictate how it's going to go down with much of the tribe.

Jonathan and Coach, together, seem to bait Dee into an argument. Dee notices that Coach looks upset and she asks him if he's sad. He says he's sad that he's heard that she's going around telling everybody that she doesn't trust him. Then she tells him to look at everyone in the camp and she says "they are all lying." And then Jonathan asks her, are you? Are you lying? She's stunned. And she reacts.

What I don't get as necessary, is Jonathan's baiting of Dee into yelling. He tells us that he wanted her to get fired up, but he appears fired up too so I'm not sure it makes him look good while making her look bad (as everyone watches). I don't think it's a bad idea for him to try to get Dee voted off. She definitely does play a dominant game and she has lots of fans in the cast. The Charlie vote-off signaled to him that Dee doesn't fully and truly align with him. She has her own agenda and who knows where he might stand. But what's the point of trying to show everyone she's hot headed? All he succeeded in doing was showcasing her fire. I don't think anyone felt truly alarmed or threatened. And, again, it's not like he wasn't acting heated, as well. I don't like it, Jonathan. Are you trying to show the woman as "too emotional" to be trusted? Yuck, man. It makes no sense to me that Jonathan believes this is a winning strategy. Partly because I don't think anyone reasonable would see Dee as unhinged by her response to his accusations. And partly because it doesn't make him look good, either. She argues and he argues back. So it feels like a sexist ploy. Men get to be pissed, but not women, I guess? I don't like it, Jonathan.

Meanwhile, Tiffany wishes she could enact war. She acts chill with her tribemates, but tells us she is "so furious" that Kamilla was voted off. "Jonathan is a lying skank!" she yells. And we love to see it. For some reason, I'm more ok with Tiffany being mad about the lying. I think because I love Tiffany. (I mean, I love Coach, too, but I love Tiffany more. And Tiffany isn't trying to pretend she's all about honor or attacking anyone for their strategies.) Honestly, though, she lies too. She's frustrated that her game got derailed, and that's understandable, but, yeah, it's game playing.

So Dee goes home. I don't believe it's because she got fiery. I think it's because people were willing to go with a name that wasn't theirs. And because she'd lost Kamilla. And because she was a threat. And because Coach was pushing her name. And because Rizo learned of her betrayal. But Jonathan and Coach did something that could bite them in the ass. Because they helped make their new enemy (yes, being dramatic) the mayor of Ponderosa.